


Horrortale

by Kastrallis



Series: Protectors [3]
Category: Horrortale - Fandom, Undertale
Genre: Comfort/Angst, DEAL WITH IT, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, More tags to be added, Strong Language, Trigger warning for second chapter, and cannibalism, does it work tho, flirtatious Sans!?, it's horrortale, just a fair warning, mayybbeee....., rebellion plan, shifty eyes, some self abuse, there's gonna be blood 'n guts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-16 23:23:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8121628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kastrallis/pseuds/Kastrallis
Summary: Well, here it is! The next AU. This one will get dark, just a fair warning. And...I may or may not have a small crush on HT!Sans, so...don't be surprised if that becomes evident.Also, if you haven't read the other parts, I recommend that you do. If you wanna know what's going on here, that is.     NOTE:: If you want a description of Minx, there's one in my works :3ANOTHER NOTE:: Horrortale doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Sour-Apple-Studios. Undertale belongs to Toby Fox.





	1. You Are What You Eat

     I didn’t wake up in a bed of golden flowers like before; I was outside the door to the Ruins. Though I had memories of things I didn’t remember happening. Something about the door looked a little odd, and it was a few seconds before I realized it was barricaded with vines. Someone was pounding on the other side desperately, and I walked over to see what the matter was. With each pound, the door cracked open for a split second, just enough for me to see Toriel’s face on the other side.

     “Mom?” I said meekly. The pounding stopped immediately just as I heard a sharp intake of breath. “Mom, I…I have to move forward, even if it kills me. I’m sorry for leaving you, after everything you did for me. And…thank you. Even though your love was dangerous, even after what you tried to do to me, you offered me something that was more than what I could ever hope for on the surface.”

     “Child,” her voice was raspy, like she had been yelling a lot. “You are the first to say that in quite a while…I don’t know how much longer I have before I forget myself, but promise me something.”

     “Anything,” I urged.

     “Promise me you won’t die in this hell hole like the rest have.”

     I was taken aback. Of all the things she could’ve had me promise…why that? And what did she mean by ‘the rest’? “Okay,” I said after a few seconds of thought, “I promise.”

     “Good. Now you’d better go before we draw too much attention to ourselves,” she said gently.

     I put my hand on the door, leaning my forehead against it. “I promise.” I said again before walking down the path a little ways. To my left was a little clearing with a sign…and was that Papyrus? Damn, he didn’t look so good. I decided to go straight before going to see him.

     After a few seconds, I started hearing a strange tapping sound, like someone drumming their fingers against wood. There was a break in the trees, and there sat Sans in a hot dog stand, but this wasn’t the Sans I knew. Not by a long shot. He still wore the same clothes, but there was a chunk of his skull missing, and his left eye had a big red orb in it, with a black pupil in the middle – the other eye was completely dark. His grin was no longer casual – it looked sinister, almost daring me to get too close. Was that blood on his clothes? Don’t get me wrong; I’m not queasy or anything. I just didn’t expect Sans, of all people, to have the stuff all over him.

     “hey buddy,” he said, “howzit goin’? boy, you look half-starved. like any minute i’ll find ya… ** _pasta_** -way. heh heh.” He nudged a hot dog in my general direction. “howzabout a nice spicy hot dog to fill ya up?”

     Come to think of it, I _was_ hungry. Though I didn’t really trust this version of Sans enough to accept _anything_ from him, let alone food. “N-no, that’s okay, I’m not hungry,” I lied through my pointed teeth.

     “heh. that’s funny. cuz it looks like not eatin’ anythin’ is just **_killin’_** you. c’mon, it takes effort to make a perfectly good dog free of charge. i put a lot of **_blood_** and **_sweat_** into this thing…”

     I weighed my options. Finally I decided to accept the offer and reached out my hand, trying to will it to stop shaking. When I got close enough, he snatched up my wrist and flipped me on my back, standing over me with a blood-stained meat cleaver. _“One head dog, COMIN’ UP!”_ he swung it down toward my head.

     I caught the handle of it with my free hand, and it came to a halt mere inches from my face. He was stunned for a moment; I don’t think he was expecting me to fight back. I smirked in spite of the circumstances and swung my leg up, effectively locking his arm in the crook of my knee. By now he had let my hand go, and I charged it with heat and latched it onto his face, focusing all of my energy to it.

     He smiled creepily up at me. “silly girl,” he snickered, “don’tcha know that skeletons can’t feel heat or cold?”

     “No, but I bet you can feel _this!”_ I said and swept my other leg out that wasn’t preoccupied with locking his arm in place. My foot connected with his skull, knocking him back a little, but not much. He lunged back toward me, but I was having none of it. I did a backflip off the stand into the snow, landing expertly in a crouch.

     His expression changed to one of irritancy. “i got a **_bone_** to pick with you, sweet cheeks.” He jumped off the stand toward me.

     I moved out of the way, allowing him to face plant right in the snow. “Please, keep your mouth closed when we’re fighting – your breath is ripe,” I taunted.

     He went on hands and knees and started coughing…and coughing. And coughing. I was filled with a sense of Patience, and I folded my arms to wait; though when I saw blood start spattering on the snow, I got concerned.

     Ignoring the fact that he just tried to fucking kill me, I crouched next to him and started rubbing his back, feeling every vertebra under my palm. Finally I set him up in a sitting position and put my hand over his chest where his lungs would be, focusing my energy on it; though not as intense as before. After a few seconds, he stopped coughing and started panting, trying to regain his breath. I withdrew my hand and looked up at him. “Still wanna kill me?”

     He looked me up and down, still breathing heavily. “…nah. ya prolly got tough meat, anyway.” He stood up and offered his hand to me.

     I hesitated.

     He sensed my mistrust and threw his meat cleaver away, extending his hand again once he had.

     I smiled and accepted, getting pulled to my feet, albeit a bit roughly. “you should go see my bro, papyrus. he’s back down the path and to the right. oh, and don’t eat his spaghetti if ya don’t have to,” he called after me, “ **ya are what ya eat, after all.** ”

     I spun around to look at him with a freaked out look on my face. He snickered, and I threw my hands up and continued forward, following his directions to get to Papyrus.

     I walked up to him, and hhooOOLY SHIT WAS HE TALL! I had to crane my neck just to see his face. To my relief, he stooped down to talk to me with a bowl of his favorite Italian dish in his hands.

   “HUMAN! YOU ARE SKIN AND BONES! I INSIST THAT YOU ENJOY A TASTE OF MY SPAGHETTI!” his teeth were blood-stained. His scarf was in tatters. His eyes were beady. Overall, he just looked…creepy.

     I remembered Sans’ warning. “Erm…not this time, sorry,” I declined.

     “BUT HUMAN! YOU MUST EAT TO REGAIN YOUR STAMINA!!! THAT WAY YOU CAN FACE MY PUZZLES, AND THAT WAY YOU CAN BE WEAKENED BY THEM, AND THAT WAY I CAN CAPTURE YOU!!!” he was blocking the path to Snowdin, from the looks of the sign. It looked like I would have to humor him to get him to move.

     _Here goes._ “Uh, on second thought, maybe I will.”

     He squee’d. “HERE YOU GO!” he thrusted the bowl into my arms, and I stumbled backward a bit.

     I took a bite and reeled from the taste. It was meaty, but it didn’t taste like any kind of meat that I’d ever had – and I’ve had a lot of meat. As I tried to figure out what it was, Sans’ warning echoed in my head. _Ya are what ya eat._ My stomach lurched, and my gag reflex activated. While Papyrus was busy ranting about how much I was eating, I discreetly spat it out and nudged some snow over the half-chewed meatball with my shoe.

     “NYEH HEH HEH! EXCELLENT HUMAN!” I snapped to full attention, putting an innocent look on my face like I wasn’t doing anything. “NOW THAT YOU ARE PLEASANTLY PLUMP, WE CAN CONTINUE WITH OUR GAME! I SHALL INFORM SANS OF THE GOOD NEWS! QUICKLY, FOLLOW ME TO YOUR IMMINENT CAPTURE!” he walked off to the path that I had just come from.

     But…but I hadn’t eaten anything…my stomach told me. Oh well. I had no choice but to follow him, since whenever I tried to go someplace else, he yelled that it wasn’t the way to go. I got back to where Sans was, and he was fast asleep. He looked so peaceful, so I didn’t wake him up and walked forward instead.

     Papyrus was on hands and knees in the snow, drawing something with a stick that looked like tic-tac-toe. I looked over and saw Sans leaning against a tree. Dafuq, how’d he get there so fast!? “ARG! HUMAN! I DID NOT THINK YOU’D ARRIVE SO QUICKLY. WELL THIS IS EMBARRASSING… I DO NOT YET HAVE ANY PUZZLES READY! BUT I IMAGINE YOU ARE BURSTING WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON DOWN HERE. HM…AH! OF COURSE! WHY DON’T YOU ASK SANS?”

     Sans got a disturbed look on his face.

     “HE’S A CHEERY FELLOW! I’M SURE HE’D BE ECSTATIC TO PUT YOUR MIND AT EASE!”

     “what? no. she’s fine,” he objected.

     “OH COME NOW BROTHER! SHOW HER YOUR SUNNY SIDE! GO AHEAD, HUMAN.”

     I walked over to Sans and leaned against the other side of the tree next to him.

     “listen, bucko. as much as i admire you tryin’ to get yourself killed, i just don’t have the heart for stupid questions. so scram.” He refused to look at me.

     “SANS!!!!!! BE NICE! I WANT THE HUMAN IN HIGH SPIRITS BEFORE MEETING HER DOOM!” Papyrus chastised.

     Sans made a weird noise and a creepy face. “sup?” he finally said.

     I rested my head against the tree. “What’s up with Toriel?” I asked.

     “tori…? i haven’t really checked up on her lately. i may have made the mistake of telling her how bad things have gotten around here. she…hasn’t taken it well.”

     I scoffed. “No shit,” I mumbled.

     “guess you could say it… ** _ruin_** _-_ ed her life. heh heh.”

     I shot him a dirty look.

     “but hey, on the bright side, at least she isn’t alone anymore. yeah, i’m always hearing voices coming from that door. sounds kinda like yours, all panicky and shrill. but that’s none of my business.”

     I rubbed my forehead. “This is _so_ fucked up…”

     “you’re tellin’ _me,”_ he agreed.

     “What about Undyne?”

     “ugh…queen undick. now she’s just plain rude. guess you could say she and i don’t see eye to eye socket.”

     I snorted at his nickname as well as the pun, and his grin got a little wider.

     “personally, i’d like to see her dead, but then who’d be left to rule this paradise? someone’s gotta do it, and she’s real enthusiastic about bringing on human genocide, so…as for me, i’ve given up on figuring out what’s right and wrong.”

   I sighed. “Alphys?”

     “i uh. i dunno how to answer that question yet, though i’d figure she’s probably dead. but there is one thing. sometimes, when a human fails a puzzle, pieces of ‘em just kinda disappear.”

     “OH, YOU MEAN LIKE THE ONE WITH THE MISSING FACE! THAT WAS STRANGE, WASN’T IT, SANS?” Papyrus joined in. “WE WERE STROLLING THROUGH THE WOODS, AND TO MY DELIGHT, A HUMAN HAD FAILED A PUZZLE OF MINE. BUT WHEN WE INSPECTED THEM, THEIR FACE WAS MISSING, AS WAS EVERYTHING ELSE ABOVE THE SHOULDERS! IT WAS BIZZARE, BECAUSE AS FAR AS I AM AWARE, HUMAN NEED THOSE THINGS TO ATTEMPT PUZZLES.”

     “he means we found ‘em headless,” Sans reiterated, “and i can’t figure what sick monster would run around choppin’ heads off.”

     I glared at him.

     “…hm? what’s with that look?”

     We stared at each other for a solid 30 seconds before I rolled my eyes and gave up. “Whatever.” I went back to where Papyrus was.

     “SO YOU HAVE YOUR MIND AS WELL AS YOUR TUMMY FILLED WITH DELICIOUS CONTENT!”

     Not really, but okay.

     “SO…WITHOUT FURTHER ADU……………………”

     There was a long pause, and I shifted on my feet. He suddenly picked me up and held me off of the ground, looking even more terrifying up close. _“LET THE PUZZLES BEGIN!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I didn't think this AU would be so fun to write. I mean, I've been looking forward to it, but still. This chapter was from the playable demo, and being the perfectionist I am, I played through it and stopped almost at every dialogue frame to write it word for word XD and yes, I realize the part with Toriel isn't accurate, but there's a reason for that. Don't kill meh 0_o after this chapter, I get to think up the rest of the thing, so that'll be fun :D if you have requests for what you want to happen, let me know, and I'll try to work it in somehow. So until next time, byeeeee~


	2. Grisly Puzzles and Grillby's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans gets a little frisky in this chapter, but...I can blame that on my crush on him. BAD CRUSH!
> 
> NOTE:: The end of the chapter is triggering, so just be warned.

     Papyrus’ puzzles were…dark, to say the least. One of them had a severed head dangling from a rope just inches from my own – it looked fresh.

     The most light-hearted one was where I had to be able to and get past a plate of spaghetti without eating it. But that one was easy; I knew what was in it. Papyrus was shocked that I was able to ‘resist his gourmet cooking’. I think even if it didn’t have that kind of…meat...in it, I still wouldn’t be comfortable eating it with Sans staring at me like I was a piece of meat myself. It didn’t help that he licked his teeth when I glanced at him.

     Finally I got to the part where I “fight” Papyrus. Sans was sitting on the sidelines, just…watching. Except now he was staring at my multicolored SOUL, licking his teeth every now and then.

     Either Papyrus Classic was going easy on me, or this one was just stronger, but I got my ass handed to me. Maybe it’s just because he had more practice, I realized.

     I had to have had at least a couple broken ribs, and I could taste blood in the back of my throat and feel it going down my chin. Oop, there goes my lip again. Son of a bitch.

     The gashes on my arms and were starting to burn, and my head was pounding. Finally I just…didn’t have the strength to stand anymore and fell to my knees in the snow, letting the blood drip onto my shirt. I couldn’t even do anything when Papyrus stalked over and raised a sharpened bone aimed toward my head, still smiling manically. He swung it down.

     “wait,” Sans spoke up right before it made friends with my skull, making both of us look over at him. He strode over and nudged Papyrus’ weapon away from me. “i don’t think she’s a human.”

     The bone Papyrus just almost killed me with dissolved into wisps of magic, and he bent down to take a better look at me. “HOW SO, SANS?”

     “humans aren’t s’pose to have tails,” he pointed it out.

     “AH! I SEE! WELL LITTLE ONE, I MUST APOLOGIZE FOR MY CRUDE BEHAVIOR. WELL, BACK TO MY POST!” to my shock, he got down on all fours and scuttled across the snow back toward where I first saw him.

     Sans helped me to my feet and grinned creepily. “i may’ve been able to save ya that time, but i won’t always be able to. so, i’d say your days down here are limited.”

     I suddenly swooned, and he had to support me with his shoulder as I all but collapsed on him.

     “whoa there, ya **_fallin’_** for me, or what?” he put a hand on my waist and grabbed my other hand, wrapping my arm around his neck.

     I scoffed. “You wish,” I mumbled.

     He looked me up and down the best he could from his current position. “hm. paps really did a number on ya. let’s get ya fixed up.”

     I only mildly protested as he half-carried, half-dragged me back to his house, ignoring the stares of the other monsters in Snowdin. The first thing I noticed when we crossed the threshold was the smell – metallic. I knew that smell; the stuff was pumping through my veins right now. Well, most of it was. The rest was either running off of my arm onto Sans’ jacket, or it was hard at work staining my shirt.

     He sat me down on the couch and went upstairs for something, coming back with a first-aid kit. “gimme your arm.”

     I hesitated. “Why are you helpin’ me? Not too long ago you were tryin’ ta chop my damn head off.”

     He glanced at my face. “i dunno, really. let’s just say i knew a kiddo like you, way back. now gimme your arm before i take it from ya.”

     I held it out with a huff, letting him apply some ointment and bandage it up. He was actually pretty good at it. There was an awkward silence before either of us spoke. “…Why did you save me? Killing me would’ve given you another supply of food, human or not,” I said after a while.

     He cocked his head. “dunno. just…didn’t feel right.”

     “Thought you gave up on tryin’ to figure out what’s right.”

     “well, i know what’s left,” he snickered.

     I shook my head and smiled. Unfortunately, I smiled a little too wide and made my lip break up again. “Ow,” I hissed, putting my free hand to my lip.

     His head snapped up, and he got to his feet and leaned over me, putting his hands on either side of my head. I didn’t feel normal enough to protest when he dipped his head inches from mine, or when his tongue snaked out. He licked along my lip, cleaning the blood away from it. He pulled back when he was done, licking his teeth. “your blood tastes sweet,” he said, my blood dripping down his own chin.

     “Uh…thanks?” my head was still spinning a little.

     He smirked and went into the kitchen, and I started hearing creaky cupboards being opened. Though I didn’t really do much to try and figure out what he was doing; my head was still a little foggy. I _did_ snap to attention when he sauntered back into the room, holding a plate of food. “There’s no meat in that, is there?”

     He scoffed and showed it to me. “we don’t really have much that doesn’t call for meat, but…here.” He held it out.

     Never had I thought that a salad would move my heart so much. So the Sans I knew was still there, deep down somewhere – he was just hidden by all of the fucked up shit that had happened. I tried to take it from him, but the gashes on my arms made them so sore that I could only lift them so high.

     He audibly rolled his eyes and sat down next to me, stabbing some lettuce with the fork and holding it next to my face. I gave him an icy glare, but I let him feed me anyway. He was still smiling creepily, but now I was too engrossed in the food to really give a fuck. About halfway through, I felt strong enough to take the plate and finish it myself.

     He watched me eat like the creepy motherfucker he was, tapping his fingers against the couch absentmindedly. When I was done, I set the plate on my lap and sighed contentedly. It was then that I became aware of his eyes on me, and I sent a glare his way. “What’re _you_ lookin’ at, **_bonehead?_** _”_

     He seemed to process my pun for a second before his grin got wider. He chuckled, a deep, throaty one that made my face heat up slightly. _Oh gawd, not now!_ He smooths a bony hand over his face and shrugs, and I get a glimpse of the old Sans as he looks at me with a content look on his face. “wanna go to grillby’s? it’ll be awhile before paps gets back.”

     “Grillby’s?” the new word felt natural on my tongue.

     “yeah, it’s a little restaurant here. i’m kind of a regular there,” he explained.

     “So…like a date?” I teased, giving him a lopsided grin.

     A hint of a blue blush danced across his cheeks, and he sputtered. “n-no, we’re just goin’ ta get somethin’ to eat.”

     The salad didn’t really do much to satisfy my ever-demanding stomach, so I agreed. “Sure, let’s go.”

<\-------≪≫------->

     Well, I think I have a taste of how a celebrity feels, and I hate it. Getting hungry stares while I’m trying to walk down the street isn’t my idea of fame.

     Sans seemed to sense the tension, and he had stepped closer to me, dishing out his now signature creepy grins that dared anyone to get too close. I had been touched that he cared about my safety – that is until I realized that any wolf would fiercely guard its food.

     I snapped out of my thoughts when a white fire elemental monster came up to me behind the bar and quietly asked me if I’d like a burger or a serving of fries. I said fries, since the burger would have meat in it (obviously). That’s when I realized that I’d be going vegetarian for this AU, but that was just fucking fine by me.

     He set my order down in front of me, smiling a little. It melted my heart to see that at least _someone_ wasn’t blood-thirsty around here. I smiled back and nudged my food closer to me so I could eat it.

     “want some ketchup for those fries?” Sans asked, grabbing a bottle from the side. I shook my head. “oh well, more for me,” and he proceeded to drown his burger in it.

     I raised my eyebrows. “Want some burger with that ketchup?” a crackle came from the fire elemental that I assumed was laughter.

     “Very funny, Grillbz,” Sans said lowly, but his grin got wider.

     Ohhhh, so the fire dude was Grillby. Got it. I smiled and got busy on my fries. They were actually pretty good, despite there not being any salt on them. I could see Sans watching me out of the corner of my eye, and I turned to him with my cheeks stuffed with food like a chipmunk.

     He snorted and laughed, some of his burger spewing out of his mouth and onto the floor. That set me off, and I was miraculously able to swallow my mouthful and laugh along with him. After a few minutes, some other people started chuckling, too, until the entire bar was roaring with laughter. Sans and I started catching our breath again, and I puffed up my cheeks with air, lighting the fuse all over again.

     When we finally stopped again, we had somehow turned in our seats so we were leaning against each other, back to back. Sans chuckled again, and the sound made his ribs practically vibrate against my own. It felt…nice. Not only the feeling of laughter, but the feeling of physical contact. Never thought I’d say _that._

     He raised a hand to wipe some tears from his eyes and sighed happily. “we’d better head back. paps’ll be gettin’ home pretty soon, too.”

     I nodded and leaned my head back. It fit perfectly in the curve of Sans’ neck. He went still for a moment before resting his skull on top of mine. He was warm, surprisingly, and my eyes started getting heavier before I finally couldn’t take it anymore and fell asleep.

     I woke up what I assume to have been a couple hours in Sans’ bed, and I could hear snoring behind me. In my half-asleep state, I turned to see him sitting in a chair by the bed, snoring away with a peaceful expression on his face. I smiled, drifting off again.

     I didn’t dream of Error. I dreamt of my sister. How she accepted me after my mutation, cared for me while I retaught myself how to walk with a tail, applauded when I learned to control my power of fire, comforted me when shadows grew darker, and allowed me to comfort her when her own demons caught up to her. The most vivid moment was the look on her face when she was dying in my arms.

     I awoke with a start, tears streaming from my eyes. I sat up solemnly, looking for the knife I usually kept under my pillow before realizing I wasn’t at home. I ran my tongue over my sharpened canines, lifting my wrist to them and squeezing before I tasted the metallic liquid flow into my mouth.

     Sans’ breathing picked up, like he smelled something. I heard him almost kick his chair over in his haste to get to me, but I just bit down harder on my wrist. He grabbed my jaw and forced it open, taking my arm away from my face. He didn’t say anything, instead he just tore the edge off of his pillowcase and wrapped it tightly around the fresh wound to stop the bleeding. He stared intensely into my eyes, and I tried to swallow the lump in my throat.

     “your skin ain’t paper; don’t cut it,” he instructed.

     “I wasn’t cutting it,” it wasn’t exactly a lie.

     He raised brow bone. “well, your life ain’t a film, don’t end it.”

     The wall I had built cracked in that moment, and I broke down, the tears coming back with a vengeance. He pulled me to his chest and smoothed my ears back, rocking back and forth and resting his chin on my head. Just when I was about to fall back to sleep, I heard him say something else.

     “you’re beautiful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GAH! Why do I do this to myself!? I got hit in the feels writing the end, not just because I was listening to emotional music, either. I've battled depression before, and it was based on something that actually happened in my personal life. I've never felt beautiful, so...yeah. Depressed writer + writing about being called beautiful = BAM! Feels. I'm not a person that cries often, but...I cried ;-;


	3. They Did WHAT!?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh damn, son! Shit's happened!

     My face heated up when I woke up the next morning. Sans was still holding me to himself, snoring away like a chainsaw. I tried to move, but the grip on my back held me there. I heard Sans chuckle. The sonovabitch was awake.

     “n o p e .” he said in a low voice.

     “Well,” I huffed, “I ain’t no fuckin’ teddy bear! Lemme go!”

     “i don’t think so, sweet cheeks,” he sang.

     “Aight, you asked for it,” I said and pushed with my legs, essentially tackling him. We both tumbled to the floor, and he somehow ended up on top of me, straddling my legs with his own.

     “um,” he said, a blush appearing on his cheeks.

     I smirked and raised my arms above my head. “Please be gentle…”

     The blush accelerated, and the red orb in his eye shrunk while his grin got wider. “ehhdg,” he sputtered, getting to his feet and helping me up.

     I giggled at the look on his face while his eye darted all around the room.

     Suddenly there was a knock at the door. “SANS, I HEARD A NOISE. ARE YOU OKAY?

      “uh, yeah, i’m fine,” he called, glancing at me. “c’mon, we’d better head down before he loses a bone,” he tossed his head and opened the door, letting me go out first. We both went downstairs to find Papyrus in the kitchen, humming a happy tune.

     There was meat on the counter.

     “hey, bro,” Sans said, sitting down at the table while I eyed the meat warily.

     “GOOD MORNING SANS AND…GOODNESS ME! I NEVER CAUGHT YOUR NAME, SMALL ONE,” he turned to me.

     Huh, so they hadn’t. Wait, did he just call me small? “It’s Minx.”

     “WHAT A LOVELY NAME FOR A LOVELY LADY!” Papyrus squealed, still stirring the contents of the pot behind him. He suddenly seemed to notice something and scuttled over to me, completely abandoning his cooking. He gently lifted up my arm. “What happened?” oh gawd, this one has a creepy quiet voice, too.

     “Uh…” I struggled for an explanation and looked to Sans, but he cocked his head as if to say I was alone on this one. “Just uh, hurting a little is all. No biggie.”

     He tilted his head curiously, but he let go of my arm and dropped the subject.

     “watcha makin’ there, bro?” Sans gestured to the pot.

     “AH! I AM MAKING A STEW!” he announced.

     _Thank fuck it’s not spaghetti,_ I kept the thought to myself.

     “IT’S ALMOST FINISHED; I JUST HAVE TO ADD THE PROTEIN CONTENT.” He reached for the meat.

     “eh, why don’tcha save the protein for another time, pap,” Sans rescued me, “i think minx here is a vegetarian.”

     “OH! WELL IN THAT CASE,” he turned the flame off and ladled the stew into three bowls. “FOOD IS READY!”

     He set two in front of me and Sans before sitting down himself.

     For a while, the only sounds in the room were the sounds of slurping and chewing.

     Once we were done, Papyrus took the dishes to the sink and washed them. “I MUST GET TO MY POST,” he announced, “SANS! WATCH OUR GUEST AND MAKE SURE SHE FEELS WELCOME! AND NO –ahem– _SKULL_ DUGGERY!” he got down on all fours again and scuttled out the door, and I watched him leave with more curiosity on how the fuck he does that than anything.

     I was brought back to earth by Sans’ fingers tapping against the tabletop. “ya aight, minx?”

     “I’m fine. Do you guys have a shower I can use?” with all this bloody nastiness about, I felt like I needed one.

     “yeah, upstairs at the very end. door’s kinda hidden,” he waved to that general direction.

     “Ah, thanks. Imma go make sure it works,” I got up and headed for the bathroom, feeling his eyes on me the whole time. I opened up the secret door and reeled at the sight. “Holy shit!” There was blood _everywhere._

     “oh yeah, forgot to tell ya,” Sans called from downstairs, “that’s usually where we go to clean up after a hunt.”

     “A _hunt!?”_ I practically screeched. “Oh my god…” I warily opened the shower curtain and gagged. There were bloody entrails all over the floor. I heard Sans laughing from the doorway.

     “hahaha! ya ain’t squeamish, are ya!?” he threw his head back and cackled.

     If looks could kill, he’d be burning in hell right about now. I straightened and redignified myself. “Got any rubber gloves?”

     “nope,” he wiped away a tear, “got no use for ‘em.”

     “Fine. Move,” I commanded.

     “huh?”

     I gathered up a few entrails still dripping with blood. “MOVE!” I used my last-resort Alice Cooper voice.

     He actually physically jumped and moved out of the way as I stalked past him, not really giving a shit about the blood dripping everywhere. I kicked the door open and threw the guts out in the snow, shutting the door and going back for more.

     Sans watched in stunned silence as I had to make three trips to get rid of all the guts, after which I got down on hands and knees and cleaned up all the remnants of the “hunts”, as Sans called them. It took me only a half hour to clean it, at the rate I was going. I threw away the last paper towel in the kitchen, turning around and inhaling deeply. “Now if you’ll _excuse_ me,” I said calmly, _“I_ am going to take a shower.” I shouldered past him and went to keep true to my word with a huff.

 

         ~3rd person POV~

 

     “Now if you’ll _excuse_ me, _I_ am going to take a shower,” Minx stated, pushing past Sans with a little _huff._

     The skeleton turned to watch her march up the stairs, and he was still standing there when the water turned on. He didn’t really have an explanation as to _what_ just happened, but he knew _something_ did. He’d never seen a girl that Determined before. Except maybe the kiddo, but he wasn’t really sure what gender they were.

   His thoughts were cut off by a colorful string of curses from the bathroom, which lead him to guess that she was trying to clean herself without getting hot water on her injured arm. That reminded him. Why was she biting herself? Well, because she didn’t have knife, but seriously. Was the innocent girl hiding something?

     _Almost innocent,_ he corrected himself after she yelled “FUCK!”

     He snickered and plopped down on the couch, flipping through the channels a bit. The only things that were on were news reports that seemed very redundant to him. Since Mettaton was dead, his show had been canceled. He never thought he’d say this, but Sans kind of missed the guy, however annoying he had been.

     His thoughts cut off again when the water turned back off, and the door opened a few minutes later.

 

           ~Back to normal~

 

     I stepped into the hallway, smoothing back my ears with a satisfied sigh. I usually hate water, but it felt nice to be clean. I leaned over the railing and smirked at the look that formulated on Sans’ face.

     “c’mere, lemme re-bandage that.”

     I trotted down the stairs and let him wrap another bandage on my injured arm.

     Something suddenly caught his attention on T.V, and I looked over.

     _“Suspicions have been rising in Snowdin lately due to rumors that someone’s been hiding a human; the last SOUL needed to break the barrier!”_

     “Oh my god,” I breathed, and Sans and I both looked at each other. “Call Papyrus and tell him to get his ass back home.”

     “roger that,” he pulled out a beat-up phone and dialed his number.

     I kept my eyes glued to the screen to see if there were any updates while Sans paced in the kitchen.

     “he’s not picking up,” he leaned back into the room with a panicked expression on his face.

     “Damn,” I pounded my good fist on the couch. If anything happened to the cinnamon roll, I don’t know what I’d do. My attention was demanded from the screen, and I waved Sans over. “Look.”

     “fuckin’ hell,” he cussed at the images on screen.

     I turned up the volume.

     _“The royal guard named ‘Papyrus’ has been detained on suspicion of hiding the human at his home. He will be questioned, and we’ll keep you posted on the outcome of the interrogation.”_

     I was hit by two shockwaves by the reporter’s statement. Number one, Papyrus was a member of the royal guard, number two, _they did WHAT!?_

     “fuck this,” Sans stood up and marched for the door.

     “Sans, wait!” I ran after him and grabbed his arm, but he roughly tore it away. “Sans, think about this. Just rushing in there is dangerous, you could get killed!”

     “so?” he said.

     “Did you not hear what I just said!?”

     “listen up!” he grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me up to his face. “i don’t care if i get killed; if there’s even a chance that i can get papyrus out of their hands, then that’s a risk that i’ll just have to take. no matter what you say or do, i’m going.” He growled

     “Then let me go with you!”

     He set me back down and fixed my shirt, and I swatted his hands away from fear of him finding the Delta Rune. “no,” he shook his head, “you stay here. even though ya ain’t human, your SOUL may be strong enough to give the barrier that one last push it needs to break. stay here, understand?”

     “But…” I sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

     He nodded and opened the door. “oh, one more thing. there’s a cloak in my room. but it’s only if you absolutely _need_ to go outside. got it?”

     I nodded, and he walked out the door and shut it behind him with a sense of finality. After waiting a few seconds, I turned around and raced upstairs, shouting “SYKE!”

<\-------≪≫------->

     I tugged the hood over my eyes more as Grillby set my order of fries in front of me. You may be asking why I’m at a bar that’s mostly full of members of the royal guard, who are the ones I’m trying to avoid. Well, I wasn’t looking for food (for once); I was looking for someone I could trust, and I thought Grillby was a good start. He seemed to be the one of the friendliest monsters I’d met so far.

     “Hey Grillbz,” I summoned him quietly. “Could we talk in private for a few minutes?”

     A look of understanding pulsed in his flame and he nodded, pulling out a notepad as if to write me a bill. Though when he set it in front of me, it read, _‘go to the bathroom in a few minutes. I’ll meet you there.’_

     I smiled and followed the instructions, nonchalantly strolling to the bathroom a few minutes later. I waited for a while before he literally melted through the wall from the other side. “How did you-“

     “The men’s bathroom is on the other side. Come, I have somewhere we can talk,” he opened the window and climbed out, holding out a hand for me.

     I accepted his hand, and it wasn’t scalding hot like I was expecting it to be; it was just warm, like bathtub warm. “Won’t someone notice you’re gone?”

     “I have someone covering for me. Don’t worry, I saw what happened on the news. It’s not like anything else plays on those blasted T.V’s in there,” he led me deeper into the woods, and it reminded me of the story of Hansel and Gretel.

     “Should I be dropping bread crumbs?” I asked.

      “So many questions,” he chuckled softly. His voice reminded me of a fireplace, not surprisingly. “We’re here.”

     “Where? I don’t see anything,” I turned in a circle to prove my point.

     He didn’t say anything, just pointed up.

     “Oh.”

     There was an actual house in the trees, practically hidden by branches that reached out as if to hold hands. Grillby walked up to the tree and moved a long stick that I didn’t even notice before. A rope ladder dropped, and he started climbing, gesturing for me to follow.

     Inside the house was pretty nice, and I was impressed that a fire elemental was able to live in a structure that was almost completely flammable. It reminded me of a fantasy potion shop; there were shelves lining the walls stocked with jars of glowing liquids that served as the only light source in there. A bed sat at the opposite end, with a well-worn cushion on the floor next to it.

     “Welcome to my humble abode,” Grillby said.

     A little black cat nudged up against my leg and mewled. I picked her up, and she settled into my arms and purred away.

     “Huh, usually Poppy doesn’t warm up to anyone new that quickly,” he shrugged. “Now, judging by the fact that Sans didn’t accompany you to the bar, I’d say he’s already left for Undyne’s castle to rescue his brother. Am I wrong?”

     “No, that’s exactly right,” I said.

     He nodded and pulled a map from one of the shelves. “You’ll need this,” he informed me, pulling a bottle from the same shelf and pouring it into two separate smaller containers. “And these.” He tied a leather belt around my waist and slipped the bottles into the straps hidden in it.

     “You’re practically giving me permission to risk my life right now, Grillbz,” I said.

     He smiled and nodded. “Now go before we draw too much attention to ourselves. Good luck!”

     He handed me the potions and the map and practically pushed me toward the ladder.

     I carefully climbed down, watching over my shoulder the whole time. When my feet touched the snow, I shrugged the cloak back over my shoulders and headed toward the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be perfectly honest, when I was writing "FOOD IS READY!", I was torn between calling it breakfast and lunch. I literally typed both twice and finally settled on calling it just food. Anyway, I wanted to give a couple of shout-outs to Gelasia_Kidd and SomeoneWhoCares; they both supported me so much during the last couple of days. Thanks, guys!


	4. Into the Fish's Den

     The map Grillby gave me really _did_ come in handy; in various places, in fact. There was a room where I had to go all ninja to get past some guards, but that was pretty easy since I did something similar back on the surface. But the fact that I had practice didn’t keep me from feeling a level of satisfaction from being able to sneak past all of them without being caught. I savored my victory and moved on, silently thanking Grillby for giving me a potion that didn’t glow. That would _not_ have gone over well.

     This next room was…different, to say the least, but what else did I really expect from Queen Undyne? There was a narrow pathway surrounded by lava. Okay, no big deal there, but there were axes swinging across the path at a rapid rate, providing an obstacle within an obstacle. Great. If the axes weren’t sharp enough to slice anything they touched, they’d knock whatever they hit right into the damn lava. I was secretly impressed.

     It wasn’t like I could just blast down all of the axes with SOUL fire; that would attract the unwanted attention of the guards in the room I just got past.

     For a heart-racing minute, I carefully made my way over to the other side, taking care that my tail was never sliced clean off. Sometimes I really hated that fifth furry limb. Just as I breathed a sigh of relief at still being alive, I sensed something racing toward me, and I ducked just in time for a glowing red spear to fly through the air right where my head had been. It stuck into the wall a few feet away, shaking as if from rage at missing its target. I looked at where it had come from and saw an empty harpoon shooter. I rolled my eyes. _Thanks, Undyne._

     My attention was grabbed again to realize that it wasn’t staying empty. Another spear was started to poke through, and I started running like hell. I didn’t feel like getting run through with a spear. Fuck that.

     Finally I got to a doorway and dove through it to the other side, pressing my back against the wall and heaving breaths. A spear slammed through the stone right next to my head. _Well okay then._

     Now I took the time to assess the room in front of me, which I probably should’ve done _before_ I dove headfirst into it, but hey. I was running from fucking spears, okay!?

     It was spacious, with rooms in it. To be perfectly honest, it reminded me of a jail complex, minus the jail keeper people. Now that I thought about it, there was no one in sight. I kept my senses on high alert as I carefully made my way through to the other side. I stopped cold when a door I was walking past was banged on from the inside.

     I stared at the door for a few seconds, and it happened again. Whatever was in that room wasn’t happy, and it was _strong._ With each bang, the door bulged outward, so much so that it looked like it just needed _that_ much more, and it would bust right off of its hinges. I went up to it and looked through the window, taking care not to get too close in case it bulged out again.

     “Oh my god.” Sans was in there. I banged on the door with a fist, and his head snapped up, a look of pure anger and hatred in his eyes. Though the look melted into one of surprise and slight relief at the sight of me. I made a motion for him to get away from the door, and he stepped away. I took a few steps back, summoning my SOUL and blasting the door down with my fire.

     He stepped out of the cell, and I dusted my hands. He raised an eyebrow at me, and I shrugged. “i thought i told ya to stay at the house.”

     “Yeah, I forgot to tell you that I’m terrible at takin’ orders,” I rolled my shoulders.

     “well, at any rate, i’m glad you’re here. food’s horrible,” he winked.

     “I bet it is. Now let’s get Papyrus and get the hell outta here.”

     “any idea where he is?”

     “Listen,” I twitched my ears to emphasize my point. “Ya hear that?”

     Sans tilted his head. “no.”

     “It’s comin’ from over here,” I strode up to another door and tried to peek through the window, but this one was higher up, so I couldn’t reach.

     He chuckled. “move it, short stack.”

     I moved with a huff at being called short.

     After a few short seconds, Sans’ grin completely disappeared, and he turned to me, shaking with rage. “minx. blast this damn door down.”

     “Why, what’s goin’-“

     _“DO IT!”_ he yelled, making me jump and do as I was told.

     Once the infernal piece of metal was out of the way, I saw what rattled Sans’ bones, and my own blood began to boil. Papyrus was on a metal table with his skull strapped in place, a strange-looking machine pointed between his eyes.

     Sans rushed in faster than I’ve ever seen him move before, and I ran in close on his heels. There were a fuck ton of guards in here, which explained the lack of them in the hall.

     “SANS! MINX!” Papyrus squealed, and I winked at him.

     Sans summoned two dog skull-looking things, and they opened their mouths and shot some sort of energy blast into the midst of the guards, taking out a good portion of them. Holy shit. Remind me to stay on his good side.

     I suddenly heard a mechanical whirring behind me, and I shot a fire ball at the source out of reflex. The machine that was pointed at Papyrus’ face was destroyed, and I scowled at the guard that had fired it up.

     I stalked over to him and put both of my hands on the sides of his face, charging them with intense heat, making him scream in pain. I kept my hands there until his screams died out, and his muscles relaxed in death. That business taken care of, I turned to see Sans releasing the bonds that held Papyrus on the table, and I rushed over to help with the other side.

     We helped him to his feet, and he rubbed his wrists gratefully. “AM I GLAD YOU TWO ARE HERE! BUT FOR NOW, WE MUST LEAVE IMMEDIATELY! I’M SURE QUEEN UNDYNE IS ON HER WAY NOW.”

     “shit,” Sans mumbled. Oh, so all this time it was okay to swear in front of Papyrus!? Well shit then, indeed!

     I pulled out the map Grillby gave me to look for another escape route. There were none; one way in, one way out. Fuck. “Follow me,” I started running back the way we just came, and I blasted the harpoon thing on the wall. I tried to do the same to the axes, but I felt too weak to do so.

     Sans stepped up and used another dog skull cannon to do it.

     I didn’t have the strength to stand for some reason, and Papyrus scooped me up and followed Sans across the lava room into the next one with the guards in it.

     Sans used his skull cannons twice more, but soon he grew fatigued just like I had.

     Papyrus, my sweet honey bun, put me down and bravely stepped forward to summon skull cannons of his own, blasting through the rest of the guards with ease. Seeing him being so brave filled me with senses of Determination and Bravery.

     “TRATORS!” I heard a rough feminine voice boom from behind us. Undyne.

     “Guys, we gotta go,” I said. I still couldn’t stand.

     Papyrus picked both me and Sans up, one in each arm, and ran toward the exit. Over his shoulder I could see Undyne on the other end of the room, summoning a circle of red spears.

     “PAPYRUS!” she screeched, “YOU’RE FIRED!” she threw her weapons.

     “GOOD, BECAUSE I QUIT!” he yelled over his shoulder, leaping out of the gate right as it locked down, separating us from Undyne. Papyrus didn’t stop running, though. He ran all the way back to their Snowdin house. Though I was proud of him for being smart and going in the back door that I hadn’t even noticed.

     He set both of us down, leaning against the wall and gasping for breath, and for good reason. The poor skeleton had just run a damn marathon carrying _two_ torches.

     “well,” Sans said, “guess we’re fugitives now.”

     “Yep,” I agreed, “which means we can’t stay here. Sans, you said that Alphys is dead, right?”

     “can’t know for sure. the only ones we know are dead are asgore and mettaton.” He shrugged.

       “This means no disrespect, but maybe we can use that to our advantage. Guys, pack your shit. We’re goin’ on a road trip.”

     Papyrus, who seemed to have caught his breath, bounded upstairs to pack, and Sans scampered up after him. They were both going quickly; they knew we had to move fast.

     The taller one was the first to come back downstairs, and he wasn’t carrying anything.

     “Paps? Did you uh…get everything?” I asked.

     “YES I DID! I HAVE A LOT OF ROOM IN THIS BATTLE BODY OF MINE! NYEH HEH HEH!”

     “…I see,” I nodded and turned to face Sans, who cradled his meat cleaver like it was the most precious thing in the world.

     “by the way,” he said, “those potions on your belt are like smoke bombs, if ya wanted to know.”

     “Oh, cool,” I patted one. “Now let’s get movin’; there’s no tellin’ how much longer before-“

     I was interrupted by the door being pounded on from the other side, and I lit up my hands in fire, getting into a defensive stance and waiting. It bulged out a few more times before being broken down, and I cursed at what stood on the other side – a mob. There were _way_ too many to fight our way through.

     I grabbed a bottle from my belt and yelled “SCATTAH!” before shattering it on the ground. Sans was right; it _was_ a smoke bomb. The smoke spread quickly, hiding me and the skele-bros in a thick shield. They got the idea and ran out the back door before the fog could clear.

     Sans led the way into the thick forest, taking quick turns that would make it harder for anyone to follow us – that is, it _would,_ if we weren’t making footprints on the snow.

     I was about to say something about leaving a trail, but the world suddenly went dark for a split second, and the next thing I knew, we were in Hotland.

     “where to, kiddo?” Sans asked me like what just happened was the most normal thing in the world. Papyrus didn’t seem bothered by it, either.

     I shrugged it off and answered. “To Mettaton’s old theatre.”

     “WELL LET’S GET MOVING, THEN!” Papyrus yelled, leading the way to our destination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! College days are over for this week! Ugh...I had tests in two of my three classes today...one was easy, and the other was hard as hell. I went in my second class, and the lights were on (the lights are never on), and there were papers on the table. I looked at one of the papers, and it said something about the chapter exam. I was like, "Oh shit." Then the teacher came in and said we were going to review for the exam. I literally said "Oh thank god," out loud and everyone started laughing.  
>  Anyway! Tell me how you liked the chapter, and if you have any suggestions for what you want to happen. This is one of the few AUs where we get to make up the rest, because the only thing I had to go off of was the demo; nothing existed after that.


	5. The Theatre and a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, this chapter's going to feel a whole lot like an action movie scene where the rebellion group comes together like a team. Holy cow I just almost misspelled 'team' as 'tem' and I laughed for like five minutes XD Ah, I'm tired.

     “I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO COME HERE, BUT…NEVER HAD I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES,” Papyrus stated, looking around the abandoned theatre. He had found his way to the stage and was posing in the middle of it.

     “Sans!” I suddenly exclaimed, “don’t drink that!”

     He peered at me over the bottle in his mouth. “why not? ‘s perfectly good ketchup.”

     “Dude, who knows how long it’s been here!” I snatched it out of his hand and slammed it on the bar.

     He somehow grabbed it again. “don’t worry ‘bout it, monster food never goes bad,” he took another swig.

     I sighed and sat on one of the bar stools.

     “what’ll it be, little one?” Sans winked at me, leaning over the counter.

     I rolled my eyes. “I’ll take a boxin’ glove if ya don’t quit callin’ me ‘little one’.”

     He folded his hands under his chin and plastered an innocent look on his face. “you wouldn’t hit lil’ ol’ me, wouldja?”

     I gave him an unamused face and blinked slowly. “Yes.”

     Sans narrowed his eyes playfully and took a drink of his ketchup.

     “WHAT ARE YOU TWO TALKING ABOUT OVER HERE?” Papyrus plopped down next to me and leaned his elbow against the counter.

     “Paps, am I small?” I asked him.

     “NYEH? WHY YES, YOU _ARE_ SMALL,” he booped my head.

     I sighed in defeat and resigned to my small stature.

     “so what’s the plan here?” Sans hopped up on the bar and gazed down at me.

     “Lay low and come up with one,” I said, “There’s gotta be _some_ way to fix this.”

     “like what? the only way to ‘fix this’ is to…” his voice trailed off when he realized what he was about to say.

     “Kill Undyne,” I finished. I didn’t really feel bad about saying it; this wasn’t the Undyne I had become friends with back in Undertale. From what I’d seen, she’s only a shadow of who she was. There’s no coming back from that.

     “BUT WE CAN’T KILL UNDYNE! WHO WOULD RULE THE UNDERGROUND?” Papyrus protested.

     “What about Toriel?” I said, “She was Asgore’s wife, right? She probably knows a thing or two about ruling a kingdom.”

     “yeah, but she’s trapped in the ruins. not to mention, she’s kinda not right in the head,” Sans reasoned.

     “The only reason she’s not right in the head is because of how fucked up everything’s become. Sorry, Paps,” he nodded. “If we kill Undyne, then that would get rid of the power that made everything get that way in the first place.”

     “SHE HAS A POINT,” Papyrus said.

     “okay, i’m in. how do we go about doing this?” Sans said.

     I took Grillby’s map out of my belt and carefully unrolled it on the counter. “If we can get Toriel out of the Ruins and with us, then we’d have someone who’s been on the inside of the castle.”

     “leave that to me,” Sans said and hopped of the counter. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

     “Aight, how does he do that?” I turned to his brother.

     “OH! HE CAN TELEPORT!” he said cheerfully.

     “Well that explains everything,” I said sarcastically.

     “INDEED IT DOES!” the honey bun didn’t understand sarcasm. “LOOK! THERE’S A T.V! DO YOU THINK IT WORKS?”

     I looked to where he had pointed. “Huh, so there is. Lemme see if it does.” I walked over to it and pressed the power button, but it didn’t turn on. I turned and shrugged, and he made such a sad face that I felt determined to get that T.V working if it was the last thing I did. After a few minutes, I was startled to hear Sans’ voice behind me.

     “i uh…i think it’s s’pose ta be plugged in,” he snickered.

     I looked, and sure enough, the cord was unplugged from the wall. “Oh,” I said and plugged it in. The T.V turned on. I turned to see Sans standing there, trying really hard not to laugh. Then I noticed Toriel standing behind him, her shoulders shaking with laughter as well.

     “Hey, Tor,” I waved, “sorry you had to see me come **_unplugged_ ** a bit there.”

     She giggled, covering her mouth with a paw. _Toriel’s still in there._

     Papyrus shot me a look.

     “what were ya tryin’ ta do, hot-wire the t.v?” Sans bantered.

     I stared at him blankly before a crooked grin formed on my face. “Yes,” I said.

     “SHH!” Papyrus hissed, pointing at the screen.

     _The owner of the popular restaurant, ‘Grillby’s’, had been detained under suspicion of aiding the human and two skeleton traitors in the act of outright defiance of Queen Undyne._

     “How the fuck do they find these things out!?” I snarled under my breath.

     Toriel gasped. “Language, my child!” great, someone else I can’t swear around.

     “shh!” Sans shushed us.

     _The fire elemental has been questioned, but he refused to talk. He has so far been released, but the royal guards are on high alert for the fugitives. If you see anything, you are ordered to immediately report it to the Queen._

     “They already questioned him!?” I stood up and slammed my fist on the counter, and Papyrus had to tug me back into my seat.

      “That’s enough of this madness,” Toriel spoke up, standing a little straighter. “Count me in.”

     “Alright!” I cheered, and Papyrus applauded. “Now you guys study this map and tell me what you found when I come back. I have some business to take care of.”

     “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Papyrus asked me.

     I smiled at him from over my shoulder on my way out. “To visit a friend.”

<\-------≪≫------->

     It took a little while to find Grillby’s place again, but I finally found the tree and let down the rope ladder. I knew it was dangerous to come here, but I’ve been hunted before, so I knew how to avoid people. (Haha introvert joke. No? okay…)

     When I got to the top of the ladder, Poppy greeted me with a meow, alerting Grillby to my presence.

    He sat with his back toward me, and he looked over his shoulder with a sad expression. He had a strange mask covering his mouth, and his hands were gone, replaced by metal claws. “Now…now I’m _really_ a monster, aren’t I?” he laughed sadly.

     I rushed over and gently felt his cheek. His flames felt cold. “Grillby, what did they _do_ to you!?” I felt anger rise in my chest, though not toward him.

     “I’m fine, really I am,” he insisted, “Just a little…put out at the moment.”

     “Come with me back to Hotland. Your flames will do much better there than in the cold.”

     “I can’t,” he shook his head, making the blazes on his head sway gently.

     “Why not?”

     “They’re keeping close tabs on me; if I ever mysteriously disappeared, well…they’d probably know exactly where I went. I don’t want to lead them straight to you,” he placed a claw on my shoulder, being careful not to rip my shirt with it.

     I put my hand over his and sighed. “I understand. But listen. There’s gotta be some way for you to join us long-distance. We’re planning to kill Queen Undyne.”

     He rose in his seat a little. “What!? That’s suicide!”

     “We have Toriel on our side; she, Sans, and Papyrus are all back in Hotland coming up with a game plan while I came to see you.”

     “Did you not hear me!? If you go in that castle, you won’t come back out alive!” he grunted in pain as something in his chest hissed. He pulled his robe back, and there was a gaping hole there, with a thick, inky substance leaking from it.

     “Oh my god,” I exclaimed and lit up my hand in gentle fire, softly touching the wounded area. “Does that hurt?”

     “It just feels warm,” he said, “Thank you. You have a good SOUL.”

     It finally stopped bleeding, and I was able to close the wound enough that it would be able to heal the rest of the way on its own.

     “I quit my job at the restaurant,” he informed me.

     My head snapped up. “What are you gonna do now?”

     He waved a metallic hand at the rest of the hut. “Sell potions, I suppose. There are enough supplies in the surrounding woods to last awhile. So, if you ever need anything potion-related, you know who to see.”

     I nodded. “Okay. I should get going now before someone notices I’m here.” I got up to leave, but he stopped me.

      “Take this,” he held out a potion to me. “It’s a healing elixir.”

     I gently nudged it back to him. “You need it more than me,” I smiled. “Take care of yourself, Grillbz. And you too, Poppy,” I scratched behind the cat’s ear, making her purrs roar to life.

     “You too, Miss,” he waved as I disappeared down the ladder.

<\-------≪≫------->

     “minx, thank god!” Sans exclaimed as I entered the theatre. “we were starting to get worried!”

     “I WASN’T WORRIED,” Papyrus stated.

     I came up to the counter and took a place to peer at the map. “I’m fine; just went to see Grillby. Did you guys find anything out?”

     “A few things, but I’m not sure how much good it’ll do,” Toriel answered, pointing to a few spots on the paper, “It looks like Undyne has added a few new rooms since she came into rule; I think they’re for housing extra guards.”

     “though what would she need all those guards for? asgore already had hundreds,” Sans added.

     “I think she knew someone would try to overthrow her and got nervous,” I thought aloud.

     “HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET PAST ALL OF THEM?” Papyrus pitched in.

     “Maybe we don’t have to,” I said, “Tori, is there any way to get straight to the throne room without going through the guards?”

     “If there were any, she’s destroyed them now,” she shrugged.

     I sighed and tapped my nails on the counter, pursing my lips. “Well, Grillby offered to give us potions if we need them, so that may help. He tried giving me a healing potion, but I didn’t take it.”

     “WHY?”

     “He needed it more than us. The ‘questioning’ was more torture than anything. Part of his face and chest were extinguished, and his hands were gone.”

     “The only thing that can extinguish a fire elemental monster is holy water,” Toriel said, a look of fury and sadness overtaking her features.

     “they made him drink _holy water!?”_ it was Sans’ turn to stand and bang a fist on the table.

     “My god,” I placed my head in my hands.

     “FRIENDS! LET IT BE FUEL TO GET US THROUGH THIS REVOLT, NOT SOMETHING THAT WILL BRING US DOWN!”

     “Papyrus is right,” Toriel placed her paws on mine and Sans’ backs in a calming manner. “We should embrace any source of Determination we can get.”

     “I have an idea, but I don’t think you guys will like it,” I said, swinging my legs.

     “well spit it out, sweet cheeks,” Sans encouraged.

     I sighed. “They have no reason to kill you guys on sight, right? But me, on the other hand…though I’m pretty sure Undyne would want to finish me off herself. That would get me literally right next to her.”

     “So what are you getting at?” Toriel asked, though the look on her face let me know she had a clue.

     I put my head down and sighed again. “I have to turn myself over.”

     They all sat in stunned silence until Sans suddenly had an outburst. _“WHAT!?”_

     “It’s the only way to get close enough to her,” I reasoned.

     “BUT THERE _MUST_ BE ANOTHER WAY! THERE MUST!” Papyrus was in disbelief.

     “Child, there is no way we’ll let you willingly turn yourself over to her,” Toriel’s eyes flashed.

     “there’s _no_ way you can beat her yourself,” Sans said.

     “WE CAN _ALL_ TURN OURSELVES IN,” Papyrus said, making everyone turn to him in shock.

     “paps, that’s suicide,” Sans objected.

     “IT’S ALSO THE ONLY WAY TO GET INSIDE THE CASTLE WITHOUT HAVING TO GO THROUGH GUARDS,” he countered.

     “He has a point,” I said, “though how do you propose to break out of those cells with the hall outside crawling with them?”

     “THAT’S WHERE _YOU_ COME IN, MINX,” he said, “WHILE THE GUARDS ARE BUSILY GUARDING YOU, WE WILL ESCAPE.”

     I gave a toothy grin. “I’ll be sure to make lots of noise, then.”

     “that doesn’t make me feel any better about this plan, but…ya gotta do what ya gotta do,” Sans gave in, and we turned to Toriel.

     “We’re only doing this if the vote is unanimous,” I stated firmly, “after all, you’ll be ruler after all this is over. You should have a say in how it’s done.”

     She stayed silent in thought for a few moments, making me grow concerned about what her answer was going to be. What it actually was made a wave of relief flood my brain, as well as fear at what it meant.

     “Let’s do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As mentioned before, I need to sleep T.T  
>  Oh! Tomorrow's opening day for bow season! Yeah deer hunting! I've been looking forward to this day! Everything is going according to plan...*rubs hands together evilly* wait, is evilly a word? Ha, it is now!  
>  Well, good night everybody! (and by good night I mean I'm going on youtube until I get tired haha) (no seriously that's the only thing that makes me tired)


	6. A/N

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah yeah, I know it's not a chapter, don't kill meh ;-;

      Okay, so you may be wondering why I haven't updated lately, and Gela, this is why I haven't responded to your e-mail too...

 

      Ok, soo, everything was going just peachy keen, and then I get sick. I don't get sick often, but when I do, it's either really bad, or it sticks for a looooonnnnnggggg time. For example, this is only the second time this year I've gotten sick, and thankfully this time it's just a bad head cold. Though last time it was pneumonia. My mom had it first, in my own defense. I've heard of sharing everything with the ones you love, but I don't think the person that said that was thinking about bronchitis and pneumonia. ~~Thanks mom.~~

      Anyway, it's just a head cold this time around, but that also means that it's lasting a ridiculously long time. I've been sneezing like one of the seven dwarves, and making a whole bunch of other bodily noises that aren't too pleasant to hear for three weeks. Fortunately, I was able to get through my exam for Political Science before it hit, but I had to do a speech a few days later, and I was coughing and sneezing for pretty much the whole thing. I survived, though, so I guess that's the only thing that matters.

      UGH. So, the next chapter is in the works. Very...slowly...But hey, the turtle won the race, right? Anyway, I have 6 pages written, and I'm aiming for at least 8. So I'm....*math in progress*....3/4 of the way done.

      I got to thinking this morning while I was in church [instead of listening to the pastor like I should've been (yes, imagine that, a fucked up girl like me in church)]. What AU am I going to write next? I'm trying not to do Underfell and Underswap just yet because they would be like repeats of Undertale, just everyone has different personalities. I was thinking Mafiatale (I'm excited for that one), but I feel like I shouldn't be like, "Here ya go, readers! An AU that I'm saddling you with! Oh, you wanted me to write about a _different_ one? Welp, that's too bad, because I don't give a shit about what you think!"

      So, I know I ask this so damn often, but what AU do you request? If it's one that I don't know about, I'll do some research and write about it to the best of my ability.

      Anyway, I'll let you go now...I have a headache to nurse...Kastrallis out.


	7. Plans Carried Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do said plans succeed? Or am I just playing with y'all?

     My heart pounded in my ears as I watched my friends from the shadows, marching toward the castle. They were going in to get intentionally captured first; I was to go in roughly an hour later.

     Papyrus turned and gave a cheesy thumbs-up, and I forced a nervous grin as I tried to force my heart to slow down; I could swear the guards would hear it.

     Sure enough, they encountered the guards at the front entrance and were man-handled inside. It made my anger flare to see them treated with such disrespect, but I reminded myself that I’d get my chance. All I had to do was wait another hour, in which I occupied myself with fidgeting with the various objects I found scattered about – mostly rocks and sand. I swear I glanced at my wrist a hundred times, only to realize that I didn’t even have a watch.

     I was glad we had slept last night, even if we _did_ have to rotate out of guard duty. There’s no point in acting out a rebellion plan while trying not to nod off.

     Finally my time was up, and I started for the castle. Part of me was glad to have something to do other than act out Phantom of the Opera with rocks, and the other part of me was terrified at what I could find. Though the thought of what the end result would be if this crazy plan succeeded filled me with Bravery, Perseverence, Justice, and Determination.

     There were different guards stationed than the ones that ushered the others inside, just like Toriel said there would be. Seems that Undyne had kept to the original shift schedule after all – good.

     The three of them seemed to panic, and one grabbed a communicator and hissed a few phrases. He was talking to Undyne; I could hear her response even from where I was. _“Capture her, you idiots! Bring her to the SOUL chamber, alive; I’ll be waiting!”_ even her voice sounded off, but maybe it was just the distortion of the walkie-talkie?

     I pretended to put up a fight like we agreed, just so that they wouldn’t be suspicious as to why I would be willingly handing my own ass over. I feigned fatigue, and they roughly grabbed my arms and half dragged me into the castle. I glared back at the other guards we passed that laughed and jeered, some slapping me as we passed. Damn did I want to fight back so fucking bad, but I had to pretend I had lost the will to fight.

     The three guards took me straight to this SOUL chamber, which was right past the holding cells that I had broken Sans and Papyrus out of before. The latter peeked out of his window at me, and I discreetly smiled at him before one of my “captors” shoved my head back to look forward. I wanted to bite the prick’s hand. Though I _was_ glad that our assumption was correct that there were virtually no guards in the hall – they must’ve all been in the SOUL chamber.

     The guard in front opened a metal door and held it open as the other two shoved me inside. I wasn’t able to catch myself due to my hands being tied behind my back. Oh well, nothing I can’t handle. I coughed and looked up.

     There stood Undyne, wearing battered armor and holding a red spear. There were also a fuck ton of guards in there, all standing at the ready. “Damn, you went through all this trouble for lil’ ol’ me?” I snarled. I couldn’t hold my snarkiness in any more.

     A guard came up and kicked me. “You will do well to hold your tongue in the Queen’s presence!”

     “You’ll do well to _shut the fuck up!”_ I jumped to my feet and kicked him in the sternum, making him stumble backward. The other guards instantly rushed forward and held me in place as Undyne stalked toward me.

     “I’ve had enough of your insolence,” she growled in my face. Her voice _did_ sound off.

     “And I’ve had enough of you period,” I spat. Literally – I watched it slide down the side of her face. It was red; one of the sons of bitches must’ve busted either my lip or one of my teeth. I hoped it wasn’t my teeth; that’d be a bitch to fix.

     She barely reacted other than narrowing her eye and raising an arm. _What’s she doing – OOF!_ My thoughts mirrored my spoken reaction as her fist collided with my stomach. Holy shit, what’s her fist made of, a brick!? Oh wait, this is Undyne we’re talking about.

     “You may not be human, but if there’s even a chance that your SOUL will be enough to break the barrier, then I won’t hesitate to kill you. Remember that the next time you spit at me,” she hissed.

     I scowled up at her, and she stood up straighter and strode away with her hands clasped behind her back. She then proceeded to take a stroll around the circular room, gazing at the glass containers that were lined up against the walls. They contained the other six SOULs. “Patience, Bravery, Integrity, Perseverance, Kindness, Justice…” she listed them as she passed their respective colors, pausing when she got to the last one. It was empty. She turned to me and gave a sadistic grin. “…And yours. Of course, killing you quickly would mean getting to the surface faster, but who’s to say I can’t have a little fun first?” she summoned another spear and pointed it at my cheek, starting to make a tiny incision.

     I refused to give her the satisfaction of hearing proof of my pain, so I stayed silent, resorting to scowling at her with my one good eye.

     There was suddenly a loud bang from the jail hall, and about half of the guards looked over their shoulders. I took a deep breath and blew a flame in Undyne’s face, lighting my hands up to burn the ropes that held my hands. The guards all turned their attention back to me, just like I wanted them to. I smirked and swept on of my legs into one of their shins, making him let go of me. I heated the other one’s face up and blasted a fire ball into the rest of them, though I knew I needed to save some energy for the fight that was yet to come.

     Undyne yelled in fury and lunged toward me, and I narrowly dodged getting run through by the spear in her hand. Before she got all the way past me, I grabbed the spear and twirled her around, letting go and slamming her into one of the glass SOUL holders. She quickly jumped back up and lunged back toward me without her spear, this time hitting her mark. We both tumbled a little ways, me ending up on top of her. She kicked me off and jumped again, summoning another spear and raising it.

     She suddenly was knocked off course by a bright blue blast of energy, and I looked over to see Sans with a skull cannon just then closing its jaws, Papyrus and Toriel running in close behind.

     “Just in time to join the party,” I smiled, accepting Sans’ hand up.

     He looked around and shrugged. “must’ve been some party, huh?”

     “Let’s crash it, then, shall we not?” Toriel joined the banter.

     “MIGHTY STRANGE DECORATIONS THEY HAVE HERE,” Papyrus mused, bending to take a closer look at one of the many corpses lying around.

     “Enough!” Undyne boomed, struggling to her feet with the help of a spear. She wiped blood off of her lip. “I admire your Determination, I really do,” she was speaking to me, “but it has been trusted to the wrong SOUL. I must thank you for bringing these filthy traitors right to me. Makes my job a whole lot easier.”

     “They’re not your pawns anymore, Undyne,” I barked.

     “We never were,” Toriel stated, holding a ball of fire between her paws.

     She grinned. “Maybe not,” she pounded her spear against the ground, making a sound like an earthquake. A whole bunch of guards ran in the room, maybe fifty of them. “But they are. _Kill them!”_

     We all stood in a tight square, ready to fight.

     “now what?” Sans glanced over his shoulder at me.

     I lit up my hands in fire and locked onto the guard in front of me. “Let’s raise some hell!” I lunged, the others following suit.

     We fought, bit, and clawed our way through about half of them before someone pulled my SOUL out. Undyne saw her chance and summoned a sphere of red spears around the multicolored heart, tightening it with each passing second. One of the sides touched it, and I crumpled to the ground in pain.

     She laughed maniacally. “Move and your little friend here dies!”

     Papyrus, Sans, and Toriel all froze and looked in horror as the magic shield around my SOUL constricted further, and I felt sweat beading on my forehead.

     “No,” I panted, “Keep fighting!”

     Sans put down his arm, and the skull cannon he had been getting ready to use dissipated beside him. Papyrus’ bone club melted, and Toriel’s flames went out with a hiss.

     “No!” I desperately tried to use fire of my own, but something about the shield was preventing me from doing so.

     Undyne roughly grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head backward. “Thanks again for bringing them here,” she cackled before hitting me on the back of the head with the butt end of her spear. The last thing I saw before blacking out was Sans looking at me with a face of sheer hopelessness.

     Lights out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry to do this to you guys, but I am leaving it here for now. Don't worry, everything turns out fine...maybe.


	8. Snapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't be arsed to come up with a good summary right now. Maybe I'll do one later.

     I yelled in fury as I tried one last time to blast the door down, feeling my energy drain even further. I had woken up…I don’t know, maybe an hour ago in this white-walled room that reminded me of a solitary confinement cell of an asylum. I’ve been attacking the door ever since. What the hell was this door made of, anyway!? Despite all my efforts, it barely even had a dent in it. Besides, if I used up all my energy on this damn door, what did I expect to be to do when I got to the guards on the other side?

     I slumped to the floor, a feeling of dread washing over me. How could I be so fucking stupid? How could I bring my friends here believing that we even had a chance at overthrowing Undyne? Now look at us. I didn’t even know what happened to them; they might be dead for all I know. After all, what reason did Undyne have to keep them alive?

     God, I’m so pathetic! Stupid! They trusted me!

     I scratched at my injured arm through the bandages, making them hurt again. My train of thought continued as to why I deserved it, and I didn’t try to stop the sobs from escaping my throat.

     My little pity party was interrupted by furious yelling from the cell next to me. It was Sans.

     _“LET ME GET TO HER! SHE’S GONNA HURT HERSELF AGAIN! LET ME OUTTA THIS FUCKIN’ CELL!”_

     Was he talking about me? I tried to answer him with yells of my own, but he didn’t hear me.

     “Your girlfriend’s fine, trash bag,” a guard said emotionlessly.

     I leapt up and pounded once on the door. _“DON’T FUCKING CALL HIM THAT!”_

     “it’s okay minx, i got **_thick skin,_** _”_ he assured me; I could almost see him winking.

     “SANS!” we heard Papyrus yell indignantly.

     “Shut up!” one of the guards yelled.

     _“You_ shut up!” I yelled back. I heard heavy footsteps coming toward the door.

     _“don’t you fuckin’ touch her!”_ Sans roared.

     There was a loud click, and my door swung open, revealing a guard wielding some sort of staff. He pressed a button, and the end of it crackled with electricity. I tried to use fire on him, but all of my energy was still spent from my fruitless war on the door.

     He smirked and came toward me, jabbing the crackling end into my stomach. My body squirmed uncontrollably from the electrical current, and it finally stopped. I panted and growled up at him.

     “Haven’t got enough, have ya?” he went to shock me again.

     I grabbed the staff before it could reach me and wrenched it from his grasp, hitting him with the harmless end and getting to my feet. “Oh I got enough, alright.” I used it on him and watched in morbid fascination as the electricity spiderwebbed across him, and he looked like he was trying to breakdance. When I pulled it away from him, there were still some stray crackles, and I could tell he wasn’t going to be getting up for a while.

     My newly-found weapon in hand, I stepped out of my cell to see what awaited me. There were only two guards for each occupied cell, making it eight. Well, seven minus the one I just disarmed.

     They all rushed toward me with electric staffs of their own, and I jumped over one and tased him on the back while my friends cheered me on. I was filled with a sense of Determination, and it made me feel like I had just enough juice for one more fire blast.

   I dropped the staff and got in a stance – I had to be careful; I only had one shot at this. I swept my leg in a windmill kick; blazing a fire trail that collected in the middle, creating a ball of fire. As my fingers curled, I aimed and pitched the fire-ball with a palm and hurled it directly at them. It worked.

     I went back and collected the keys from the first one to use it on the doors that held the others. As soon as I let Sans out, he wrapped his arms around me and started babbling nonsense about how glad he was that I was okay.

     “Sans, you’re gonna break me in half,” I wheezed, and he let me go with a muttered apology, though he kept a hand on my shoulder. I placed a hand on his and turned to Papyrus and Toriel. “I understand if you guys don’t wanna do this anymore. You’ve lost enough already.”

     Sans’ grip on my shoulder tightened. “we’ve lost too much to quit,” his voice was an octave lower than usual.

     “He’s right,” Toriel stated, stepping forward with Papyrus. “We started this, and we’re going to end it. Together.” She smiled at me.

     “NYEH HEH HEH! THAT’S RIGHT, SMALL ONE! WE WILL NEVER QUIT!” Papyrus fist-pumped heroically. It seemed to me that he liked doing that a lot, no matter what AU it was.

     Hearing them band together like this filled me with senses of Justice and Determination. “Well then we’re wastin’ time,” I stated, grinning up at them.

     “any idea where queen undick is?” Sans said, spitting out the term like a bad taste in his mouth.

     “Right here, smiley,” a voice boomed from the other side of the room.

     “Oh shit,” the curse rolled off my tongue. There stood Undyne in all her violent glory, with a scowl on her face. Then again, what other expression did this Undyne have other than that sadistic smile?

     “You four have been a thorn in my side for long enough!” she threw a bunch of spears at them, jumping onto me and stabbing a spear at my chest.

     I braced for the pain, but it never came. We both looked down in confusion, and there was a purple force-field blocking the point from getting to my SOUL. I looked back up with a sadistic smile of my own plastered on my face.

     For a moment she looked genuinely scared, and her SOUL turned blue before leading her to barrel right into one of the stone walls. I got to my feet and grinned at Sans, who gave me a confused look.

     I looked at my chest, and there was a faint purple glow coming from under my shirt. I suddenly remembered and pulled my necklace out from hiding. The Delta Rune shone brightly, and the sight of it coupled with the knowledge that it had protected me from death filled me with a sense of Determination.

       We turned back to Undyne to see her struggle to her feet and hold her arm. Before any of us could stop her, she pounded her spear on the ground, summoning a wave of guards.

     Toriel lunged for Undyne before the wall of them separated us from her. Sans, Papyrus and I all stood in a triangle back-to-back, surrounded by the guards on all sides while the sounds of a fight rang out toward where Toriel was.

     “Let’s raise some hell!” I lunged, both skele-bros following suit.

     We fought our way through about half of them before someone pulled out my SOUL, pulsing with Brave and Determined energy. Most of our enemies froze mid-struggle to gape at it. I narrowed my eyes and used their distraction to my advantage, lighting up some SOUL fire and hurling it at them. Pure adrenaline pumped through my veins, and I didn’t notice one of the guards stalking toward me until he had already leapt toward the multi-colored heart in front of me.

     I saw him, but it was too late; he had grabbed it bare-handed. All of my memories flashed in front of my eyes, and the guard looked on in horror as he seemed to be experiencing the same thing.

     The lab, the torture, the death, the screaming. I couldn’t relive it all again! When the film of my life got to when my sister died in my arms, something inside me snapped. The guard let go of my SOUL in shock, and I gripped the sides of my head, screaming on the brink of insanity. I felt crackling coming from my blind eye, and I straightened, turning to the guards with pure fury and hatred in my expression. Though I didn’t see the guards – I saw the scientists that had injected that glowing ooze into my system, over and over.

     Something else in me snapped, and the entirety of my arms were set ablaze. I ran into the midst of them, setting fire to everything I touched. Once all of them were down, I stood there, panting, my arms still on fire. I suddenly heard a familiar voice, and I turned to see Sans running toward me with his usual grin replaced with a look of concern. I crumpled to the ground, and he slid over to me, hugging me and gently pressing my head into his jacket.

     The floodgates opened, and the fire on my arms went out with a loud hiss, allowing me to wrap my arms around him as far as they would go, gripping handfuls of his jacket.

     Papyrus came over and wrapped his gangly arms around the both of us, resting his head on my shoulder as it shook with my long-held sobs.

     After a while, I pulled away and sniffed uncontrollably a few times, wiping away my tears and nodding. Sans placed his hands on my cheeks and brushed away the tears I had missed, his expression asking me if I was okay. “I’m fine,” I managed to choke out, placing a hand over Papyrus’ on my shoulder. I looked over to Toriel and Undyne and indicated them with my head. “We should help.”

     All three of us went to do just that. “No,” Toriel barked, making us stop dead in our tracks, “She’s mine!”

     Papyrus took a step anyway, but I stopped him with my arm. “She’s right. She needs to finish this.”

     Undyne raised her spear to pound it on the ground again, but Toriel knocked it out of her hand with a well-aimed kick, followed with an uppercut with a fist of flaming fury. Holy shit, goat mom!

     They went like that for a good minute or so longer before it started to look like Undyne was losing steam – before finally Toriel was able to kick her in the sternum and knock her back. While she was struggling to get up, Toriel picked up the discarded spear and placed a foot on Undyne’s chest.

     “Wait, stop! I command you!” she pleaded.

     “You’re not in a place to command anymore,” Toriel raised the weapon.

     “No, stop! Please! Toriel!”

     She stopped at her name. Then her eyes suddenly hardened – a look that I’ve never seen on her face. “You may have the body and name of Undyne, but you do not have her spirit. Those of you who are squeamish, please don’t watch.”

     I closed my eyes; we all did. Not that I’m squeamish, I just didn’t want to see someone who looks like my friend get her head chopped off. Though I did hear Undyne’s pleading for mercy get cut off by the sound of a wet thunk, and I knew one thing for sure.

     It was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well THAT worked! I feel like this section got very violent, very fast :/ oh well. That's just an example of what goes on in this head of mine *sweatdrops*  
>  Anyway, I have the next chapter written out, but I'm letting it sit for a while before uploading it; I might pull another thing to add outta my ass.  
>  Well, tell me what you thought and if there's anything you would like to see me write. So, until next chapter, byeeee~


	9. A New Rule

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter for Horrortale, guys! I'm kinda sad now...oh well! I'll live!

     Undyne was dead, and the first thing Toriel did in her new role as queen was to imprison the remaining guards. And by ‘remaining’, I mean the ones that were still alive. I admit we may have gone a _little_ overboard in killing all of the ones we came in contact with, but I consoled myself in saying that we had no choice.

     “Are you sure you’re alright, my child?” the new queen asked for the fifth time.

     “Tori, I’m fine!” I reassured her for the fifth time.

     “ya sure? when ya went all batshit crazy on those guys, your eye was glowin’ red,” Sans remarked.

     “It was?” I lifted a hand to trace the scar that rendered me half-blind, looking at him incredulously with the one that could still see.

     “WHY YES, IT WAS! IT LOOKED LIKE SANS’ EYE WHEN HE USES HIS MAGIC, BUT IT WAS RED INSTEAD OF BLUE,” Papyrus confirmed.

     “Huh,” I said absently, wondering just how many times that had happened without my knowledge. “By the way, you guys might know somethin’ about this. When that guy grabbed my SOUL, all of my memories flashed in front of me. What was that all about?”

     Papyrus and Toriel both turned to Sans, and he sighed. “when your SOUL is touched in the right context, it can spark a reaction in your brain that makes your life flash in front of your eyes, so to speak.”

     “In the right context?” I repeated, urging him to elaborate.

     He heaved another sigh, this one followed by a clearing of his non-existent throat. “it can also be touched in a…sexual context,” he shoved his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat again.

     I felt my cheeks tint a bit. “Oh.”

     “IS THAT WHY YOU GOT ALL EMOTIONAL LIKE THAT? BECAUSE OF YOUR MEMORIES?” Papyrus tilted his head curiously.

     “Yes,” my voice cracked, and I sighed.

     Toriel placed a comforting paw on my shoulder. “You do not have to speak of it if you do not wish to.”

     I nodded. “I don’t wanna bog you guys down, anyway.”

     “Oh, I wanted to ask you,” the Queen said, “I used to have a necklace identical to yours, but I left it here when Asgore and I split apart. How did you come to have it?”

     “A friend gave it to me,” it was the truth, anyway. “Come, I have a feeling yours might still be here.” I led her to the same room Asgore had brought me to in the last AU; his chamber. It had been rearranged, but I had no trouble in finding the little golden chest and opening it, pulling out a Delta Rune eerily similar to mine. I turned to Toriel with it. “May this Rune ever protect you,” she bent down so I could place it around her neck and redo the clasp. “Promise to never take it off?”

     She hugged it with her palm and smiled up at me. “Promise.”

     “your majesty?” Sans leaned into the room, “i think we have an underground to inform of the new rule, and we know the way to do it.”

     We heard a muffled “INDEED WE DO”, indicating Papyrus was listening from the next room.

     Toriel giggled, getting back to her feet and leading me out of the room.

     The two skeletons escorted us both out of the castle and back to Mettaton’s studio. After some fussing with wires and shit, we were able to get some of the cameras working again and pointed to the stage where Toriel now stood.

     Papyrus manned the audio station while Sans assumed the role of camera man, his feet dangling from the director’s chair he was sitting on. One of his slippers had fallen off, but I don’t think he noticed. As for me, I fixed the lights. And by ‘fixed’, I mean I got frustrated and just banged my fist on the controls, after which I got startled by the spotlights turning on with a loud click.

     Sans and Papyrus both gave the thumbs-up, I gave mine from my station. Toriel nodded and started speaking to the camera.

     “Citizens of the Underground,” she started. We all exchanged impressed looks. By the way she was speaking, it sounded like she was born for this role. “We interrupt this news broadcast to inform you that Undyne’s rule is over. You are looking at your new Queen…”

     She continued with her speech, but I was distracted by my phone buzzing. It was Ink. _“Ready?”_ it read.

     _“Gimme a bit,”_ I typed and sent it.

     Toriel gave a brief conclusion before making a signal with her hand, indicating she was finished. Sans and Papyrus turned off the cameras and audio, and I killed the lights (As if I hadn’t done _enough_ killing lately).

     I came out of the control room just in time to hear Toriel say something that warmed my heart. “Papyrus, I believe my first duty as Queen is to appoint you as head of the royal guard once more.”

     The sweet roll squee’d and saluted. “I WILL DO MY BEST TO SERVE THE QUEEN!”

     She smiled warmly and turned to his brother. “And Sans,” he jerked his head up at his name, “Would you be willing to become my trusted advisor?”

     His grin reappeared, and bowed. “sure tori, uh, your majesty. heh.”

     “Just Tori is fine,” she giggled.

     My hands started feeling weird, and I looked to see them fading out a bit. “Looks like I’m leaving, guys.”

     They all turned to me, and Papyrus rushed over and hugged me. “OH MINX! PLEASE STAY!”

     I chuckled. “Afraid I can’t, hun. You’ll remember me though, won’t you?”

     “Of course,” he nodded seriously.

     Toriel came over and placed a kiss on my forehead. “Thank you for keeping your promise, child. I will be sure to keep mine.”

     “Thank _you,”_ I reiterated. She stepped out of the way to reveal Sans, who came up to me rubbing the back of his skull.

     “i uh…you, um…thanks…for everything,” he said sheepishly. Huh, Sans being shy?

     I smiled and went on tip-toes to kiss his cheekbone, making a blush explode across his face. “It was my pleasure, Sans. Now, you have a Queen to advise, and you all have an Underground to rebuild. Perhaps we’ll meet again someday.”

     “i sure hope so,” he said, smiling genuinely.

     “ME TOO!” Papyrus approved.

     “That goes for me as well,” Toriel nodded.

     The pull got stronger, and I smiled sadly, waving as everything faded to black.

     They all waved back, and my consciousness left me as I entered the Void.

~~~~~~~

     _I awoke, but not in the Anti-Void like I expected to. There was a tall skeleton pacing in front of me; the same one that had smiled creepily at me last time I saw him. I got to my feet and dusted myself off._

_He noticed I was awake and gave that creepy grin again._

_“Can you please stop doin’ that? It’s freakin’ me out,” I remarked._

_He chuckled, making me regret saying anything. “Ah, Minx. My good friend Error and I have been watching you closely. You are affiliated with the one named Ink, correct?” he paced in a circle around me._

_“Who the hell wants to know?” I said._

_“The name’s Gaster. Dr. W.D Gaster, at your service,“ he got back to in front of me, bending down and holding out a hand. It was detached from the rest of his body and had a perfect circle cut out of it. That’s kind of freaky._

_“Uh…how do you do?” I didn’t take his hand._

_He tilted his head calculatingly. “Interesting. You do not trust me?”_

_“To be quite frank with you,” I paused and took a breath as if in thought, “fuck no.”_

_He drew himself up to his full height and put his weird disembodied hands behind his back. “Maybe you’d trust me if I showed you what Ink has really been up to.” He summoned a third hand to sweep across the blank space, opening a window to a few AUs. One was the one I had just gone through, and a few I didn’t recognize. I studied each of them, my eyes widening in horror at what I saw._

_So much anger, hatred, sadness, and death, all squeezed in a few dimensions that seemed they would burst with raw emotion. I turned away, but a skeletal hand grabbed my chin and forced me to look back at them._

_“Take a good, long, look, Minx,” Gaster said, watching my horrified reaction. “This is what your so-called ‘friend’ has created.”_

_I tore the hand away from my face and chucked it at him. I savored a small victory when it hit him square in the face. “You’re lying. He would_ never _create this!”_

_Suddenly two hands grabbed my arms and pinned them behind my back. Gaster towered over me, that creepy grin still plastered on his face. He lifted a hand as if to hit me, but a glitched voice from the side stopped him._

_**“You promised you wouldn’t hurt her.”**_

_We both looked over to see Error, leaning against the nothingness like he had been the last time I saw him. He was glaring at Gaster with irritation written on his features._

_“Very well,” Gaster said, lowering his hand and releasing me. “If you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask him yourself?” he waved a hand in front of my face, and I blacked out again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit boiii! A wild Gaster appeared! (I know I used that one before, but I like it too much to use it just once lol)  
>  OH! My god! There are so many fucking guys hitting on me at this college it's not even funny. Like today, I was fresh outta one of my classes and was on my way down a set of stairs, all fine and peachy. This motherfucker comes up and almost falls down the damn stairs staring at my butt. After recovering from his near-death experience, he whistled and was just like this; these were his exact words, "'Ey gurrl, on a scale of 1 to America, how free are you tonight?" I turned to him and said, "North Korea." That's how we do it in Michigan, yo! So yea, that's my day.  
>  How were your guys' days? And don't just say 'Good', either. If I ask how your day went, I wanna know how it went. I'm German. (Just a little joke. Nobody gets it? *sigh* okay, I'll just go be a nerd somewhere else.) Lol. Byeeee~


	10. The Truth Bell Rings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We FINALLY find out about Minx's past! This is going to get really angsty and feelsy (Are those even words?). Just be warned, it'll be deep, dark, and depressing, so...wow, you're...still reading? Well, we got a savage here! You've been warned, tho, just sayin'. Okay do what you want then.

     After my little run-in with Error and Gaster, I woke up on Ink’s couch, my head propped up on a pillow.

     “Damn, you were out of it,” Ink remarked.

     I scoffed and rubbed my eyes. “I bet I was. Where’s Dream?”

     “Not here. How was Horrortale?” he sat back in a cross-legged position and watched as I stretched.

     “Horrortale? Is that what that AU was called?” I asked, smoothing my ears back.

     “Yeah. How about from now on, before you go into a new AU, I can tell you what it’s called and what to expect,” he offered.

     I nodded. “That’d be great. So which one’s next?”

     “Whoa, slow down there. First you need to regain your strength and allow the AUs to settle. _Then_ we can send you back in. But in the meantime, how did you do?” he folded his hands, ready to listen.

     “What? You weren’t watching?” I teased.

     He shook his head. “No. Why, did you want me to?”

     I laughed and shook my own head. “Whatever. Anyway, it started off a little rocky, but we were able to overthrow Undyne. Toriel replaced her as Queen.”

     He nodded approvingly. “Good. About time that AU got some happiness in it.”

     I tried to work a knot out of my shoulder. “I agree,” I paused for a moment. “Hey Ink?”

     “Hm?”

     “Who are Error and W.D. Gaster?”

     His usual star eye turned into a pinkish diamond, and he looked away. “I was afraid you’d meet them.”

     I slid off of the couch to be level with him. “Mind elaborating?”

     He sighed. “Error is…I’m not quite sure how to explain our relationship. He’s my enemy, but it seems that he’s on the fence between being good or bad.”

     “Yeah, he’s on the fence about being sane or crazy, too,” I mused.

     He chuckled. “Yes, very much so. I keep trying to get him to be on our side, but every time he sees me, he just wants to kill me. Of course, we’re like Yin and Yang; I create AUs, he tries to destroy them. If one of us were gone, everything would crumble. As for Gaster, he is most definitely evil. He used to live and walk in the original timeline, but he made the mistake of falling into the CORE.”

     “And the CORE is…what exactly?” I asked.

     “Basically, it’s a giant generator that provides power to the Underground. Gaster was the one who created it, and he somehow became trapped in the Void when he fell into it. That’s a good thing, though, because he was a very sick and twisted man.”

     “What do you mean by that?” I was soaking this stuff up like a sponge.

     “Well, he was the royal scientist before Alphys was, and he came to the same conclusion she had; that there was a way to manipulate monster SOULs to make them powerful enough to break the barrier. He discovered that Determination was the strongest SOUL trait of the seven, and he made a machine to extract and inject it into individual SOULs. To do this, he needed volunteers, but there were none, so…”

     I closed my eyes in disbelief. “He conducted live experiments.”

     “Afraid so. Dream and I are trying to keep him in the Void; if he escapes, there’s no telling what he could be capable of,” he finished.

     I nodded. “I met them both, and I think there’s something you ought to know.”

     Ink leaned forward expectantly.

     “They’ve teamed up.”

     “Oh shit…” he whispered. “How could we not notice? I have to inform Dream immediately.” He stood and headed to his studio.

     “Ink, I have one more thing to ask you,” I called to him, making him stop and lean over the railing. “Did you create Horrortale?”

     He sighed. “No.”

     While I was trying to make sense out of what he just said, he stopped in his doorway and said something else that sent my mind reeling.

     “Gaster did.”

<\-------≪≫------->

     After having something to eat and passing out on the couch, I sat up and wiped the drool off of my face. Noticing Ink hadn’t come back from his studio yet, I started to get worried. However, I can’t be a mother to everybody, so I tried my best to shrug it off and do something to entertain myself, and since I couldn’t find shit, I resorted to my thoughts.

     How could Gaster create an entire dimension if he was originally a ‘normal’ scientist (if you could call him that)? That’s another thing I had to ask Ink when he was finished doing whatever.

     My thought train crashed when the front door opened, and I turned to see who the hell would be entering the house in the middle of the Anti-Void.

     Dream limped into the house, battered with a good-sized crack in his skull. His cape was tattered, as was the coat under it. He looked at me and groaned with pain in his eyes, holding onto the door for support.

     “Ink!” I yelled and rushed over to catch the wounded skeleton from falling. His injuries looked even nastier up close. He tried to say something, but I shushed him. “Don’t speak, save your energy.” I helped him over to the couch and sat him down. “Stay here, I’ll get Ink.”

     “Wait…” Dream said weakly, and I rushed back to his side. “Don’t…don’t tell him…he’ll chew me out…”

     “Not if I’m around. Hold on,” I ran upstairs and knocked on Ink’s door. “Ink?” I said, “Dream is hurt!”

     The door flung open, revealing a concerned-looking Ink. “What!?”

     We both raced downstairs, and I grabbed the first-aid kit out of the bathroom on the way. As soon as we got to the small skeleton, I instantly got to work cleaning, disinfecting and bandaging the wound on his head.

     “Dream, what _happened?”_ Ink asked, checking him over for other injuries.

     “Night…mare…” he managed.

     We both set to work on his injuries, and Ink turned to me after a moment. “This is your fault.”

     “How is it my-whatever. You can chew me out later, but for right now, he needs our help,” I said.

     “Oh, thanks for noticing, Sherlock Holmes,” he said sarcastically.

     My heart tightened at his words. “What’s your problem?”

     “If you hadn’t been disturbing the natural peace of the dimensions, Nightmare wouldn’t have even known where we are!” he stood up.

      “What!? You were- I- wha- who the hell is Nightmare!?” I spat.

     “Guys…” Dream whimpered.

     “I always have to explain everything to you, don’t I!?”

     “Yes, you do! Or would you rather let me flounder and inadvertently fuck something up?” I got to my feet, not at all intimidated by the six inches he towered over me with. “I’m tryin’ to _help_ you guys, and I have been for almost three weeks now!”

     “You call strutting through the AUs like you own them helping!?”

     “You were the one who told me to do that in the first place, Ink! If you had a problem with it-“

     “Yeah, well I’m starting to regret ever asking you for help!”

     “Guys!” Dream wheezed. “Your negative energy is calling him!”

     “See? _Now_ look what you did,” Ink scowled.

     “What _I_ did!? Oh that’s fucking rich.”

     “What? _What!?”_

     “Ya know what? I _would_ tell you to go fuck yourself, but I don’t think you can. So how about you go stuff a cactus up your ass?” I snarled and went back to patching Dream up, signaling the end of the argument.

     I felt Ink throw his hands in the air and stomp upstairs, slamming the door to his studio once he was in it.

     I sighed heavily and asked Dream if he had any pain anywhere else.

<\-------≪≫------->

     The next few days passed painfully slow, and they were mostly comprised of me keeping Dream company while Ink stayed shut up in his studio. To be honest, I didn’t really want to see him either. Though I _did_ leave meals at his door and knocked on it to let him know it was there, and he would leave the dish where I had put it after eating the food on it.

     “I think you two should make up,” Dream said.

     “Why should we? I mean, he’s being a total ass,” I said.

     “I couldn’t agree more, but if we had some positive energy around here, I could heal faster, which means you wouldn’t have carry my weight so much.”

     I giggled. “Tempting offer, but I dunno. Somethin’ tells me that I wasn’t the one that triggered that argument. Somethin’ else is going on.”

     “So, what are you gonna do about it?” he prompted.

     I looked up at the closed studio door and pursed my lips. “Initiate project chick-flick or something.”

     Dream wrinkled his nose(?) “Too cheesy. Just…talk to him. It’ll work itself out, you’ll see.”

     I sighed heavily and stood up. “Alright then. I’ll go take a bite outta the silver sandwich.”

     He chuckled. “Bon appetite.”

     I scoffed and took my time going up the stairs. Stepping around the dishes from earlier, I knocked softly on the door and earned a half-hearted “Go away” from the other side.

     “Ink? It’s me. Can I come in?” I didn’t get an answer. I looked back at Dream, and he gave me a thumbs-up. “Hope you’re decent, cuz I’m comin’ in anyway.” I opened the door and stepped inside. It took me a second to notice Ink, curled up on his bed facing away from me. I sat down next to him and placed a hand on his arm. “Ink? Look, I won’t say I’m sorry, because I don’t think it’s fair to you if I say I am when I’m really not. But I just wanted you to know that I’m tired of us being at odds. Can we just…be friends again?”

     No answer.

     I sighed. “Ink, believe me when I say that I don’t hate you, and I didn’t really mean all those nasty things I said. I’m still not sorry about them, but I didn’t mean them, if that makes sense. I just…wanted you to know that.”

      He still didn’t respond.

     I scoffed and stood up. “Okay, sorry to bother you.” I went to leave when a hand wrapped around mine and pulled me back to a seated position. I flinched from the touch and pulled away.

     Ink turned, and I saw tear stains that ran down his cheeks. “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean anything I said either,” he whispered, his voice raspy.

     I smiled and pulled him into a hug, quieting his sobs as he expelled them into my shoulder. A low growl/purr thrummed in my ribcage, and I got embarrassed and tried to squash it down, but it was too late. Ink sat up and looked at me inquisitively. “What was that?”

     “It’s a…wolf thing,” I said.

     “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Ink said before letting out a huge sniff, “and you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want, but were you-“

     “Born this way?” I finished his sentence before sighing. “I guess it’s time I told you, huh?”

     “You don’t have to,” he said.

     “It’s time somebody knew,” I said, more to myself than to him. “Okay,” I began. “I was born human, in an alleyway because my mother couldn’t be bothered to drag her ass to the hospital. I was one of two; the other being my twin sister, Kristin. She was my life, since our parents never really paid any attention to us. Finally when we were old enough, they dropped us off at an orphanage, but we ran away because they wanted to adopt us out separately. We tried going back home, but Mom and Dad beat us off. Typical.” I took a deep breath, and Ink rubbed my shoulder.

     I pressed on. “We took shelter in an abandoned warehouse, taught ourselves how to fight. I became a street fighter at the age of twelve to earn money. I got pretty good, if do I say so myself,” my chest swelled with pride at the thought. Then it deflated again as I remembered what the next part of the story was.

     “One night, when I came home…the warehouse had collapsed. A slab of concrete had fallen right on Kristin’s legs, and I had to pry it off and carry her to the hospital. They were able to replace her legs, but they wanted to put us in another orphanage once she was well enough. We decided we weren’t going through _that_ shit, so we ran and went into hiding again. I retaught her how to walk with prosthetics, and one day when I went scavenging for food, someone put a bag over my head and took me to some kind of fucked up lab.”

     Ink rubbed my back as I regained my breath. “They tortured me nonstop for six fucking weeks, electric chair, putting live coals on my bare back, you name it, I went through it. They even cut this scar over my eye with a fucking scalpel. Though the worst was when they injected this glowing ooze into my arms, over and over again. It reacted with my DNA and transformed me into what you see now. And lemme tell ya, did it fucking _hurt!_ I don’t think anyone realizes how painful it is when your skull shifts to make room for an extra set of ears, or when your spine elongates to make tail. My fire elemental is like a by-product of the ooze, though how the fuck that works I have no idea.

     “Needless to say, I learned to use it well enough to set fire to the lab and escape. I got home, and over a few years, Kristin helped me learn how to control my new-found power. Long story short, the bastards from the lab found me again and tried to kill me, but Kristin took the bullet instead. She died trying to tell me it wasn’t my fault. Oh, and y’know how I said I was asleep when I came into the Anti-Void? I lied. I was trying to kill myself and woke up there.”

     We both stayed silent for a while before Ink spoke up. “Minx, I’m sorry, I…I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

     I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat.

     “I can’t say I know how you feel, but I can say this,” he placed a gloved hand on my cheek. “You were no mistake, and you are beautiful.”

     I broke down, and it was his turn to hold me as I sobbed myself out. “Rest for another day, and then we’ll send you into the next AU. How’s that sound?”

   I sniffed and nodded into his shirt.

<\-------≪≫------->

     “Mafiatale, huh?” I said the next day, studying the sheet of paper in front of me.

     “You’ll have to be careful in this one; as the name implies, pretty much everyone’s in the mafia. There’s the mainstream mafia, and secondary gangs. Asgore is the highest there is, and all godfathers answer to him. There are constant attempts on his life for the throne, but he’s well protected by Undyne, Sans, and Papyrus. Undyne is second in command and takes great pride in the roll. Sans is a hitman and goes by the name ‘Skullface’. Papyrus is a sharpshooter and goes by the name ‘Sniper’, but he’s more likely to try and convert the person before killing them; he still somehow retains his innocent quality.”

     “Toriel and Alphys?” I asked.

     Dream jumped into the explaining before Ink could; he’s been doing much better since Ink and I made amends. “Toriel is the leader of a more neutral gang she calls the Caretakers; it mostly consists of monsters that would rather not get involved in the battle for street power, including Grillby and Alphys.”

     I sighed; this question had to be asked. “Mettaton?”

     “He’s still a star; he has Burgerpants and Nice Cream Guy as bodyguards, but he doesn’t really need them other than to boost his already whale-sized ego; nobody ever really touches him because they’ve all come to the conclusion he’s not worth the trouble,” Ink said.

     I snorted at the names ‘Burgerpants’ and ‘Nice Cream Guy’. “Are those their actual names?”

     “Yeah,” they both said.

     I shrugged it off. “At any rate, I think I’m gonna like this one; it sounds badass!”

     Dream laughed. “You would, too!”

     “Okay then, without further ado,” Ink urged me on.

     I nodded and walked forward, blacking out soon after.

     Next stop, Mafiatale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god the feels...This is the first time I've ever written that backstory out, and it's a lot more fucked up than I thought it was D':
> 
> Don't worry, IRL, my parents are just fine, and my sister didn't die in my arms, so it's all good.
> 
> In Ink's explanation of Mafiatale, let me know if there's anything wrong with it. I'm just making this up as I go, so it'll be easy to change. :P


End file.
